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ble commun, ble cultive, bread wheat, common wheat, soft wheat, wheat

ble poulard, cone wheat, rivet wheat

Culms

14-150 cm;

nodes glabrous or pubescent;

internodes usually hollow, even immediately below the spikes.

120-180 cm;

nodes glabrous;

internodes mostly hollow, solid for 1 cm below the spikes.

Blades

6-15(20) mm wide, glabrous or pubescent.

to 18 mm wide, shortly pubescent to villous.

Spikes

(3.5)6-18 cm, usually thicker than wide to about as thick as wide, wider than thick in compact forms;

rachises shortly ciliate at the nodes and margins, not disarticulating.

7-14 cm, about as wide as thick, except when branched below;

rachises hairy at the nodes and margins, not disarticulating.

Spikelets

10-15 mm, appressed or ascending, with 3-9 florets, 2-5 seed-forming.

10-16 mm, with 5-7 florets, 2-5 seed-forming.

Glumes

6-12 mm, coriaceous, loosely appressed to the lower florets, usually keeled in the distal 1/2, sometimes prominently keeled to the base, terminating in a tooth or awn, awns to 4 cm;

lemmas 10-15 mm, toothed or awned, awns to 12 cm;

paleas not splitting at maturity.

8-11 mm, coriaceous, loosely appressed to the lower florets, with 1 prominent keel, terminating in a tooth, tooth to 0.3 cm;

lemmas 10-13 mm, lowest 2 lemmas awned, awns to 20 cm;

paleas not splitting at maturity.

Endosperm

mealy to flinty.

mealy.

Haplomes

AuBD.

AuB.

2n

= 42.

= 28.

Triticum aestivum

Triticum turgidum

Distribution
from FNA
AK; AL; AR; AZ; CA; CO; CT; DC; DE; FL; GA; IA; ID; IL; IN; KS; KY; LA; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; MO; MS; MT; NC; NE; NH; NJ; NM; NV; NY; OH; OK; OR; PA; RI; SC; SD; TN; TX; UT; VA; VT; WA; WI; WV; WY; HI; PR; AB; BC; LB; MB; NB; NS; NT; ON; PE; QC; SK; YT; Greenland
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[BONAP county map]
from FNA
CT; NY; MB; ON; SK
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Triticum aestivum is the most widely cultivated wheat. Both winter and spring types are grown in the Flora region. In addition to being grown for bread flour, T. aestivum cultivars are used for pastry-grade flour, Oriental-style soft noodles, and cereals.

Club wheats, sometimes called Triticum compactum Host, are cultivated in the Pacific Northwest for export to Asian markets. They have short (3.5-6 cm), compressed spikes, with up to 25 spikelets having 2-6 florets. Their spike shape varies from oblong or oval with uniformly distributed spikelets to club-shaped with spikelets crowded towards the apex.

No wild hexaploid progenitors of Triticum aestivum are known, but the two distinguishing characteristics of wild Tritcum species, fragile rachises breaking into wedge-shaped units and closely appressed glumes, are found in plants cultivated in Tibet and named T. aestivum subsp. tibetanum J.Z. Shao.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Triticum turgidum is the tallest of the wheats, and differs from other species of domesticated wheat in having branched-spike forms. It is grown primarily in southern Europe, northern Iraq, southern Iran, and western Pakistan. As treated here, T. turgidum is a narrowly distributed taxon of minor importance in plant breeding. Under genomic classifications, however, the name is applied to all AUB taxa, e.g., to T. polonicum, T. durum, and T. carthlicum, as well as to T. turgidum sensu stricto.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 24, p. 277. FNA vol. 24, p. 274.
Parent taxa Poaceae > subfam. Pooideae > tribe Triticeae > Triticum Poaceae > subfam. Pooideae > tribe Triticeae > Triticum
Sibling taxa
T. boeoticum, T. carthlicum, T. dicoccoides, T. dicoccum, T. durum, T. monococcum, T. polonicum, T. spelta, T. timopheevii, T. turgidum, T. urartu
T. aestivum, T. boeoticum, T. carthlicum, T. dicoccoides, T. dicoccum, T. durum, T. monococcum, T. polonicum, T. spelta, T. timopheevii, T. urartu
Synonyms T. vulgare, T. aestivum subsp. vulgare
Name authority L. L.
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